Cheap Raw Material: How Our Youngest Workers Are Exploited and Abused - Hardcover

Meltzer, Milton

9780670831289: Cheap Raw Material: How Our Youngest Workers Are Exploited and Abused

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 067083128X ISBN 13: 9780670831289

Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers, 1994

In a history of the ongoing struggle against the exploitation of child laborers, young workers describe their experiences in sweatshops, on farms, and in the fast-food business, in a study that includes advice on ensuring one's rights upon joining the workforce.

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From Booklist:

Gr. 6-up. It's the subtitle that tells us what this extraordinary book is about, and there's no mistaking Meltzer's anger at the abuses of power and disregard for human life and dignity he discovered during his research process. Even so, emotions never supersede the facts. Writing as lucidly as ever, Meltzer surveys the long history of child labor--from ancient times to the present--exploring the reasons kids work, what's been done to protect young workers, and how "the universal belief in the goodness of work" ironically became and, in some instances, still is a justification for human exploitation. Through the words of the concerned and of the children they have sought to protect--slaves, chimney sweeps, sweatshop workers, fruit pickers, fast-food workers--he brings the abuse shockingly close. Although he recognizes that some young people must work and others simply want to (he presents a series of questions designed to help kids clarify their rights as workers), he makes it clear that he sees education as the major business of youth, and he includes a look at what the government and the educational community can do to strengthen that priority and to improve the lot of the working young. Quotes and statistics are not individually documented, but Meltzer provides chapter notes and an extensive bibliography that can be used to research the subject further. With 35 photographs planned, this is a relevant, passionate, consciousness-raising book that airs the bitter truth about a shameful American secret. Stephanie Zvirin

From Kirkus Reviews:

After surveying the history of child labor, a premier nonfiction author for young adults presents a shocking report: Such exploitative use of young people is not just ``a plague of the past.'' Meltzer uses numerous first-person accounts from investigators and young workers to document the sordid working conditions and meager pay that were characteristic during the period when American factories, mines, and mills were being built; employers fought efforts to regulate them as ``socialistic'' and eulogized the ``character-building'' benefits of working to children, especially immigrants. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 promised an end to exploitation; but the examples here show that it still exists, especially among immigrants and the poor, and is still justified with the same arguments from employers. Especially compelling are stories of teenagers dying in dangerous work situations. A rousing call for decency and social justice. Bibliography; extensive source notes. B&w photos and index not seen. (Nonfiction. 12+) -- Copyright �1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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